A big habit of producers is to always be working on your #1 priority – to always tackle your #1 priority first. I’m trying, as an “experiment,” to do this for one week: first thing in the morning, to work for an hour on my #1 priority before doing anything else, even (especially) email, Facebook or web comics. Of course, I want to do it for the rest of my life, not just for one week. But: one step at a time.

Progress so far:

Thursday – Had an off-site meeting all day. Didn’t count.

Friday – Success! Worked 9am-10am on my #1 priority, before doing anything else – yay! But then I goofed off for a couple hours. Over-all a productive day, but not perfect.

Today – Fail. I spent an hour on web comics before getting down to work. Actually, before exercising and reviewing my goals and whys, which was part of the problem. The other part of the problem is that I’m short on sleep. I read recently that, when under stress (I think lack of rest counts), we default to habitual behaviours. Unfortunately, my habits are unproductive ones.

Also, I guess I was procrastinating because my #1 priority today was sales calls, and I hate doing sales.

Lessons:

It’s really important that i get enough sleep!

I have to be extra careful of my bad habits on days when I’m not fully rested. No excuses!

Once I replace my bad habits with good ones, my productivity won’t be so dependent on sleep.